Juan Valdez Cafe

 

8

48

Marina M.

Seattle, WA

I stopped in here to kill some time before a meeting, mainly because I had never heard of Juan Valdez before and figured it couldn't hurt to check it out.

The seating options were limited, and 5' me had a hard time sitting on a stool, which was especially awkward given the number of people out on the street looking in at me through the window. Felt like a fishbowl. (A very, very clean fishbowl, though.)

I had a black coffee, which was fine, and a croissant, which was dry as the Sahara. To be fair, it was mid-afternoon, and it probably wasn't fresh, but I was hungry and it was the least-rich option there (I'm not a big sweets person).

I would go here if I had no other options, but I have pretty much unlimited options for coffee in that area, so I probably won't be here again.

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Elite '08

35

164

Rachel S.

Seattle, WA

THEY HAVE CARDAMOM COFFEE!! THEY HAVE CARDAMOM COFFEE!! THEY HAVE CARDAM . . . er, sorry, perhaps I'd better try this again a little later, when I've had a chance to calm down.

* * *

All right, here we go again, sedately:

There was a time, oh, long, so long, ago now, when I lived in my parents' house, and my father had a student from Oman. The student from Oman brought back a gift of cardamom extract, glowing gold in a tiny bottle like the snuff bottles there are baffling expanses of in the Chinese rooms of art museums.

What is there to look at in a snuff bottle? Ugly little things. I suppose one day, centuries hence, there may be similar displays of early-twenty-first-century toothbrushes, so that people may marvel at the careful design and meticulous manufacture of these small, unappealing objects of everyday use.

Or, more likely, mid-twenty-first-century toothbrushes, from the period when the current trend toward overelaborated toothbrushery has reached its fullest florescence, and the leisured rich vie with each other to commission the most novel expressions of toothbrush art, crafted of the rarest materials, from the pencils (or mouses) of the most feted designers. Probably there will be toothbrushing parties, with lavish spreads of delicately flavored toothpaste (Dragonwell, kumquat, amaretto), where the bright lights of society fear to show their faces without a new toothbrush the likes of which no one has ever seen.

They will brush, and then spit into silver basins, and then floss with fine filaments of fabulous fabrics.

Erm. Hem. At any rate, there was this bottle of cardamom extract. One drop was enough to render anything it touched astonishingly delicious. (Particularly coffee.)

My parents went away for a semester, and my virtue was tried. Daily did I battle, locked in mortal combat with the fierce temptation to drink up the cardamom extract.

I emerged from this ordeal with my virtue--well, not intact, but not wholly demolished, either. The level of golden fluid in the tiny bottle had fallen noticeably, but there was still cardamom extract in there. Some.

But the idyll could not last forever. Eventually, however we might cherish it, the bottle ran dry.

Little characters on the label said MADE IN INDIA.

Thus have I haunted, for years now, long years of my life, the aisles of Indian groceries, stomach sickening on the overspiced air, searching, searching for cardamom extract. But never have I found it, and never have I found another method of spicing coffee so that the cardamom flavor doesn't disappear entirely under the taste of the coffee itself.

And then, one day last week, long after I had abandoned all hope, I wandered into Juan Valdez Cafe, and there it was on the menu: Coffee with Cardamom.

It so happened that I was desperate for tea at that moment, so I had to drink Darjeeling and defer the cardamom coffee until my next trip downtown. (Darjeeling was the only black tea on the menu, oddly, but it was brewed from real leaves and was very good. I drank it sitting happily upon a tall stool, listening to music I approved of and looking out the window at passersby.)

As soon as ever I could, back I went downtown, breathed in cardamom steam, flavored my drink with sugar and cream, and rejoiced.

Be prey not to despair, oh people of Seattle, for lo, even in the bottom southeast corner of Macy's may your dreams be realized, and your fondest wishes fulfilled.

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Elite '08

59

225

Jessica Y.

Seattle, WA

If you're one of those people who gets coffee and immediately heads to the condiments bar to dump a half cup of sugar in it, this is the place for you. I might've liked it when I was 12 and couldn't drink real coffee, but now it just gives me a toothache and a sugarhigh.

It's just barely better than Starbucks.

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3

13

Jackie M.

Federal Way, WA

Now that our office have moved away from Cafe Ladro, this is where I get my coffee.  Forget the swill in the downstairs cafe!  For a treat, try the coffee with brown sugar and cinnamon.  The barristas are friendly and they DO remember you - and what you drink!  The warm reds and oranges that decorate the interior make this an inviting shop to hunker down and enjoy your coffee, or on a sunny summer day, watch the street passing by outside!

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2

21

Brian R.

Seattle, WA

I like good, strong, black coffee and this is one of my favorite places to get it in Seattle.
I also like to try new things so, on occasion, I'll order something different... ever had coffee with cardamon in it?? I tried it and it was good.
This place offers all sorts of coffee drinks, my brother likes the mochas. They also have a good selection of pastries too.

Give this a try when you are in the neighborhood.

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